LOUIE Upgrade

Campus Solutions 9.0 to 9.2 Upgrade

NAU’s student information system, LOUIE, will be upgraded during the weekend of October 11-14, 2019 from our current 9.0 version to the latest 9.2 version. Moving to the latest version of LOUIE provides NAU with exciting new features and extends support on day-to-day critical operations for our staff, faculty, and students.

How will LOUIE be different after the upgrade? You’ll see some minor look and feel changes (color schemes, how buttons look, etc.), but there will be no major differences. However, the upgrade does provide NAU with new tools that can enhance the user experience on “self-service” features for students, faculty and staff. In Spring 2020, we’ll start reviewing those tools to determine when and how we might give LOUIE a facelift!

What is the scope of the change?

Updating “under the hood” system tools that allow us to maintain LOUIE.

Moving all of the custom changes we’ve made to our 9.0 system into the new 9.2 environment.

Identifying custom changes that are not needed in the new 9.2 environment.

Each of these activities require that our PeopleSoft development team and our business analyst teams review and test the main system and all custom changes being reapplied to ensure LOUIE 9.2 is working properly.

Why is this change being made?

NAU upgraded LOUIE to the current 9.0 version in 2012. Over the past seven years, we’ve implemented “bundles” of minor updates and fixes to LOUIE. At this time, Oracle/PeopleSoft recommends moving to the 9.2 environment by December 2019 to continue receiving premier support on the application. NAU is choosing to complete the upgrade in October 2019 to meet the suggested timeline.

What would happen if we didn’t upgrade LOUIE?

If NAU chose not upgrade LOUIE, our day-to-day operations would be significantly impacted. We depend on our system vendor to provide us with critical data updates to stay in compliance with state and federal operational requirements, and to keep our application data secure. Currently, access to that data isn’t available through any other vendor for integration with LOUIE.

How is this change being implemented?

This change is being implemented through a highly collaborative effort involving staff from almost every business division at NAU. The project is being formally managed by ITS, with a dedicated development team and a functional leads team comprised of business analysts from each area that supports LOUIE (see our project governance structure for more detailed information). Core project teams are in regular meetings to ensure the project is on track for our October implementation date.

How will our day-to-day processes change?

Currently, there is no expectation that day-to-day processes will change with the LOUIE Upgrade. Most of the upgrade will be for “under the hood” system changes and delivery of new functionality allowing NAU to improve services over time with dedicated project efforts outside of the main upgrade process. If any of our current processes are impacted by this upgrade, business analyst teams will work with their business offices to ensure a smooth transition to 9.2.

How long will it take to implement the change?

Work on the LOUIE upgrade began in the summer of 2018. During Fall 2018/Spring 2019, ITS development teams were working hard to get our 9.2 environment prepared for a critical stage of the project called “fit-gap” where we determine where the application “fits” our current business processes, and where there are “gaps” that we may need to address. This stage of the project involves the detailed work of:

Reviewing each custom modification made to our 9.0 system

Determining if that modification is needed in our 9.2 system

Moving, testing, and approving the modification in 9.2

The fit-gap phase began on March 8, 2019 and completed in early August 2019.

Beginning September 3rd through September 20th, our business areas will run through a final, complete test cycle in the new 9.2 environment with all of NAU’s custom changes. We will have a dress-rehearsal of our “go-live” weekend in late-September, then conduct the final implementation over the weekend of October 11-14, 2019.

**LOUIE users should plan on an extended scheduled downtime to the system during the implementation weekend. Review our Go-Live Weekend website for additional details on how you may be impacted 10/11 through 10/14.**

Why was October 11-14th chosen as the upgrade dates?

When preparing for the upgrade, the project team discussed several possible dates with each business area impacted by the implementation. During the course of an academic year, there are many critical business processes that we needed to identify and work around to accommodate the 3-4 days needed to turn on these system changes. Given all of the competing processes, October 11-14th was chosen as the “best” time to conduct the upgrade across the institution.

When will we know if the change was successful?

As mentioned, full testing of the new 9.2 environment with all of our system changes will occur during the month of September 2019. That will be our opportunity to ensure that 9.2 basic functionality is working, along with all of our custom changes. If any issues arise during that testing, we’ll have an opportunity to fix and retest them before our October go-live weekend. By the end of September, our business offices will send approvals indicating testing is complete and they support moving to the new 9.2 environment.

Who is most impacted by the upgrade and how will they experience the new 9.2 environment?

Students, Faculty, and Staff (General Users): When you login to LOUIE after October 14th, you shouldn’t experience any changes in how you use the system. The look and feel of LOUIE will be very similar to the current 9.0 system with minimal superficial changes.

LOUIE Support Offices: Offices supporting students, faculty, and staff using LOUIE may be asked to assist in testing the 9.2 system to ensure that all essential processes are working as expected. Your business analyst teams will be engaging you in testing if and when your assistance is needed. As noted previously, the look and feel of the application will be very similar to the current 9.0 system with very minimal superficial changes in that respect.

Project Team Members:During the upgrade, our project team(s) will be dedicating several hundreds of hours to this upgrade effort through October 2019. As such, their availability to act as resources on other projects may be limited.